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On Biblical inerrancy

Danhalen

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Matthew 21: 18-22 said:
18Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked.

21Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
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In what context shall I take this verse? Is it an allegory or literal truth? To me, this story depicts a spiteful man who would deny others the right to eat from the tree when it comes into season. An "if I can't have it, no one can" attitude. Still, others have told me this is an allegory of the nation of Israel rejecting their god and becoming withered in spirituality. There is nothing in this passage to suggest an allegory. It seems to be a depiction of a literal walk back to the city. How would an inerrant belief in the Bible justify this petty depiction of Jesus?
 
This passage is seen as both a miracle and an object-lesson. Most commentators see it as a warning against hypocrisy in general and the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious authorities of the day in particular.
 
BeProf said:
This passage is seen as both a miracle and an object-lesson. Most commentators see it as a warning against hypocrisy in general and the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious authorities of the day in particular.
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If it is a literal miracle/object-lesson, then why did Jesus act in such a petty manner? Was Jesus petty?
 
I believe it was Danhalen who said your Jesus character was being petty.
 
And why is that opinion any more valid than anyone elses? Where one person sees petty vindictiveness, another one sees God-incarnate trying to make a point. Po-tay-to. Po-tah-to.

I mean... if Christians are right and Jesus is God, the fig tree is His. He can do whatever He likes with it whenever He likes. He doesn't have to answer to anybody.
 
BeProf said:
I mean... if Christians are right and Jesus is God, the fig tree is His. He can do whatever He likes with it whenever He likes. He doesn't have to answer to anybody.
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If Christians are right and Jesus is God, why did he beg himself not to make him go through with the crucifixion?
 
And why is that opinion any more valid than anyone elses?
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Yes, why is yours?

Where one person sees petty vindictiveness, another one sees God-incarnate trying to make a point.
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Another sees a billion other ways of an omnipotent being making his point but as you say:

He doesn't have to answer to anybody.
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So why are you adverse to saying your god is a dick?
What does it matter to Christians if he's loving or not? It should be suffice to say:

"God can do whatever, I just try to avoid being his object of eternal torment - that's what being a Christian is all about."

So if he says Jesus is being petty your correct response should be:

"Yeah he's petty: you wanna argue with him about it?"
 
That_guy said:
If Christians are right and Jesus is God, why did he beg himself not to make him go through with the crucifixion?
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Well there are other Christians that see that triune is ludicrous and so wouldn't share BeProfs assertion that Jesus requires grammatically redundant capatalised pronouns for refering to him.
 
BeProf said:
This passage is seen as both a miracle and an object-lesson. Most commentators see it as a warning against hypocrisy in general and the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious authorities of the day in particular.
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I'm confuzzled...HOW is it supposed to teach this? I mean the poor tree was just sitting there, minding it's own business, when here come this Jesus guy, expecting figs, and withers the gamned tree when he doens't get them.

Was it in season to get figs?
Was the tree picked out?
Maybe it was an immature tree (do figs have a maturity issue?)...
or
Jesus was acting peevishly.
or
The story is complete fiction.
 
22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

I thought this thread was going to be about the fact that people quite often do not recieve what they ask for in prayer, not why Jesus liked to kill trees.
 
bjb said:
22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

I thought this thread was going to be about the fact that people quite often do not recieve what they ask for in prayer, not why Jesus liked to kill trees.
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naw...there's enough of those threads here. We've moved on to Jesus's arborcidal tendencies.
 
BeProf said:
Yeah... pretty much.
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Then there's no point in your pretending to have any pretence of reason in the Bible as the basis of your faith.

Metaphor, literal: irrelevent. Just waving hands so you feel like you can make non-believers look stupid.
 
kmortis said:
I'm confuzzled...HOW is it supposed to teach this?
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The point isn't why it didn't have fruit, it's that the tree was all leaves and no figs (to paraphrase Matthew Henry). Like the Pharisees who loved to make a big show of tithing every tenth leaf of an herb they found growing outside their front door but would walk right on by a dying man without batting an eye, or for that matter, Christians who gather in big comfortable buildings to whine and moan about Supreme Court justices and the legality of abortion but don't actually do anything to help support an unwed mother so she doesn't have to get an abortion.
 
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